Waaaay back in September, a friend of mine from Disney who now lives in MA posted on his Facebook page that he would be musical directing a production of "Ragtime" in Concord, MA. Having been wanting to get back into doing musical theatre, and loving this particular show, I decided to audition the first week of October. There wasn't really a principal role that I was right for, but I was excited to get cast in the Ensemble and also a few featured roles. I accepted my casting and rehearsals were set to start in January. Now... what happened between October and January?
I emailed Tom (my Disney friend) and Jules (the director) as soon as I had my doctor's appointment confirming the existence of our new addition to basically give them an out if they didn't want a pregnant person in their cast... and also to give myself an out if, having never been pregnant before, I wasn't feeling up to being in a show. They reassured me that they'd work around me if necessary and if I felt up to it, I could still be in the show.
The rehearsal commitment was Tuesday/Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons... so not that time-consuming and I ended up with a few nights off in the midst of things because I wasn't needed for every rehearsal. Met some really nice people and things moved along swimmingly. The costumers were willing to give outfit me in elastic for my expanding waistline, and it feels good to be on stage again.
Last Saturday was our cue-to-cue rehearsal. It started at 10 am and ended at almost 9 pm. We had Sunday off, but on Monday were full into tech week, with rehearsals running every night until almost midnight. My nice, relaxed schedule was thrown for a loop (coupled by the fact that this has been a busy 2 weeks at work for me, so I couldn't take time off to make up for my lack of sleep). I honestly didn't know how I was going to make it to opening night because I was just really really drained... but we did it! The show had a very successful opening weekend (2 more weekends to go) and the crazy glut of rehearsals has ended so I actually have a few days rehearsal-free when I can actually focus on other things, including poor Shaun who has been such a trooper, what with barely seeing me for the past week.
This was also the week where the baby really started to make her presence known. I don't know if you'd call them "kicks" but it's definitely more than "flutters." She particularly enjoys letting me know she's there after one of my runs up or down the stairs of the Emerson Umbrella theatre (our entire backstage area is downstairs, so I make about 10-15 stair runs each rehearsal/performance). I wonder whether the baby,having developed the ability to hear while I was in the throes of rehearsal, will find songs from "Ragtime" soothing or incredibly irritating once she makes her arrival. I can imagine 10 years from now her hearing wisps of "New Music" or "Wheels of A Dream" and thinking "wow, that sounds vaguely familiar."
So yes, our daughter made her stage debut at a gestational age of 23 weeks. Either she's going to feel right at home in the theatre, or want to run screaming from the place, knowing that this particular activity kept her mother awake much more than usual, particularly this week. But judging from the hand to the forehead in last week's ultrasound pictures, I think this kid might already have a flair for the drama:
I emailed Tom (my Disney friend) and Jules (the director) as soon as I had my doctor's appointment confirming the existence of our new addition to basically give them an out if they didn't want a pregnant person in their cast... and also to give myself an out if, having never been pregnant before, I wasn't feeling up to being in a show. They reassured me that they'd work around me if necessary and if I felt up to it, I could still be in the show.
The rehearsal commitment was Tuesday/Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons... so not that time-consuming and I ended up with a few nights off in the midst of things because I wasn't needed for every rehearsal. Met some really nice people and things moved along swimmingly. The costumers were willing to give outfit me in elastic for my expanding waistline, and it feels good to be on stage again.
Last Saturday was our cue-to-cue rehearsal. It started at 10 am and ended at almost 9 pm. We had Sunday off, but on Monday were full into tech week, with rehearsals running every night until almost midnight. My nice, relaxed schedule was thrown for a loop (coupled by the fact that this has been a busy 2 weeks at work for me, so I couldn't take time off to make up for my lack of sleep). I honestly didn't know how I was going to make it to opening night because I was just really really drained... but we did it! The show had a very successful opening weekend (2 more weekends to go) and the crazy glut of rehearsals has ended so I actually have a few days rehearsal-free when I can actually focus on other things, including poor Shaun who has been such a trooper, what with barely seeing me for the past week.
This was also the week where the baby really started to make her presence known. I don't know if you'd call them "kicks" but it's definitely more than "flutters." She particularly enjoys letting me know she's there after one of my runs up or down the stairs of the Emerson Umbrella theatre (our entire backstage area is downstairs, so I make about 10-15 stair runs each rehearsal/performance). I wonder whether the baby,having developed the ability to hear while I was in the throes of rehearsal, will find songs from "Ragtime" soothing or incredibly irritating once she makes her arrival. I can imagine 10 years from now her hearing wisps of "New Music" or "Wheels of A Dream" and thinking "wow, that sounds vaguely familiar."
So yes, our daughter made her stage debut at a gestational age of 23 weeks. Either she's going to feel right at home in the theatre, or want to run screaming from the place, knowing that this particular activity kept her mother awake much more than usual, particularly this week. But judging from the hand to the forehead in last week's ultrasound pictures, I think this kid might already have a flair for the drama:
haha- can't get over the ultrasound pic!- That's awesome :)
ReplyDeleteI want this on a T-shirt with the caption "Stage Mom" under it!!!!
ReplyDelete